Hello. I really need help with this.. Please help me. I recently upgraded my Car, from the 2001 Civic 1.6 VT-i(MT) to a 2006 Civic 1.8V(AT).

This is my first automatic transmission car. I am more used to a manual transmission car so, I really don't know how to adopt my driving style with the AT on my new civic. I usually try to get as many km per liter of gasoline in my tank. I usually upshift at lower rpms--usually @ 1500rpm on my Civic 1.6 "Dimension" as I only do city driving. However, on my new Civic 1.8 "FD", the gears only shift at 1900rpm or higher. And my fuel budget went to the roof recently as I am consuming gasoline at a higher rate than with my previous car at almost an additional 40-50% consumption.

Now I recently discovered and tried gliding on neutral once I've had enough speed. These did little to no difference on my gasoline expenditure.

More recently I observed that once I shifted back to Drive from Neutral, the transmission finds a higher gear even when the rpm is low. ie. I drove the car on D until it reaches 40kph (Still on 3rd gear at around 1600rpm), then shifted to neutral. Then once the car runs at 20(which should be on a 2nd gear if you only put the transmission on D), I put it back on D but noticed that the rpm is too low for it to be on 2nd gear. I stepped on the accelerator a little bit more and got more speed but no to little change only on the rpm. I concluded that it still ran on a higher gear.

I experimented with this more. I tried shifting at 1400-1500rpm from D to N then back to D. Voila, it does shifts to a higher gear! Everytime! So I thought I can use my old style now that I can shift at lower rpms.

But my question is, is this safe? Does this save fuel? Is my transmission okay with this?

First, highly paid engineers spend countless hours designing cars that that are geared properly, shift automatically at optimum RPM and get the best possible fuel mileage, so your efforts will result in such a small saving, that it's hardly worth the trouble, and it takes your concentration off the road.

Second, this coasting thing can be dangerous at times.

Also, using the engine to help slow you down saves the brakes a little, and I always say it's easier to replace gas than brakes.

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